Here’s some scary news: Hundreds of terrorists nabbed overseas had spent time in America – and even com piled criminal records while here.
What were they doing here? Do they have brothers-in-arms still hanging around? Did they provide intel about targets here to their bosses abroad?
The Washington Post reports that an effort begun in ’01 to fingerprint al Qaeda and Taliban fighters captured in Afghanistan (and in Iraq and North Africa, too) led to a stunning discovery: Many of the captured thugs’ prints were already in the FBI’s database.
Meaning that they had lived on American soil – and had even been arrested, for whatever reason – before joining in jihad overseas.
The likelihood that some of their fellow terrorists are still here is fresh cause for Americans to redouble their vigilance on the homefront. (Yesterday’s Senate passage of a bill letting officials keep tabs on terrorists under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is a good start.)
It’s not exactly clear why the terrorists who were here left. But it’s a fair guess that the US military campaigns in the Middle East lured them.
That validates the logic in taking the fight to the enemy. (Imagine if they hadn’t left, but instead waited for the right moment to strike on these shores.)
There are other lessons here, too:
* Databases – like those of fingerprints and other key information – can play a huge role in the War on Terror. So can the sharing of such info between military, anti-terror and law-enforcement agencies
* While the presence of potential sleeper cells is clearly the key worry, it’s no great comfort that while these future jihadis are here, they engage in crime.
Maybe presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama will now spend a bit more time focusing on how they plan to safeguard US borders – and prevent any influx of Islamists.
Meanwhile, Americans need to be doubly thankful that no domestic attack has succeeded since 9/11. And anyone who thinks the thugs aren’t still trying to sow terror should peruse the databases first.